Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)

The Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI), proscribed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967,
is an Islamist fundamentalist organization, which advocates the ‘liberation
of India’ by converting it to an Islamic land. The SIMI, an organisation
of young extremist students has declared Jihad against India, the aim
of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam) by either forcefully
converting everyone to Islam or by violence.

Formation

The SIMI was formed at Aligarh in the
State of Uttar Pradesh on April 25, 1977. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi,
Professor of Journalism and Public Relations at the Western Illinois
University Macomb, Illinois, was the founding President of the outfit.
It originally emerged as a student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
(JIH). The alliance, however, lasted only till 1981, when SIMI activists
protested against Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser
Arafat's visit to India, and greeted him with black flags in New Delhi.
Young SIMI activists identified Arafat as a western puppet, while the
senior JIH leaders saw Arafat as a champion of the cause of Palestine.
JIH decided to abandon SIMI and floated a new student wing, the Students
Islamic Organization (SIO).

Objectives and Ideology

Governing of human life on the basis
of the Holy Quran

Propagation of Islam

Jehad for the cause of Islam

SIMI also attempts to utilize the youth
in the propagation of Islam and also to mobilize support for Jihad and
establish a Shariat-based Islamic rule through "Islami Inqulab". As
the organization does not believe in a nation-state, it does not believe
in the Indian Constitution or the secular order. SIMI also regards idol
worship as a sin and considers it to be a holy duty to terminate idol
worship.

SIMI is widely believed to be against
Hinduism, western beliefs and ideals, as well as other ‘anti-Islamic
cultures’. Among its various objectives, the SIMI aims to counter what
it believes is the increasing moral degeneration, sexual anarchy in
the Indian society as also the ‘insensitiveness’ of a ‘decadent’ west.
Ideologically, SIMI maintains that the concepts of secularism, democracy
and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical
to Islam. Parallel to its rejection of secularism, democracy and nationalism
is its oft-repeated objective of restoration of the 'khilafat', emphasis
on 'ummah' (Muslim brotherhood), and the need for a Jehad to establish
the supremacy of Islam.

The outfit is known to have adopted
an extremist and militant posture on various issues of concern to the
Muslim community.

According to the SIMI, Al Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden is an outstanding example of a true Mujahid, who has
undertaken Jihad on behalf of the 'ummah'.

SIMI's interpretation of Islam is influenced
to a great extent by the writings of Syed Abul A'ala Maududi, founder
of the Jamaat-e Islami.

According to the scholar Yoginder Sikand,
Nationalism, for SIMI, is seen as a false idol, and one devised by the
non-Muslim 'enemies of the faith' to divide the Muslims and thereby
weaken them. All non-Muslims are branded by the SIMI as 'kafirs', and
no distinction is made among them. Because the 'enemies of God' are
expected to show stiff resistance to Islam, violent Jihad is to be waged.

Leadership

Dr Shahid Badar Falah functioned as
the national president and Safdar Nagori as the general secretary till
the organization was proscribed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act,
2002. The Delhi Police arrested Falah on September 28, 2001, from its
office in the Zakir Nagar area of Delhi and he has subsequently been
charged with sedition and inciting communal disharmony in the State
of Uttar Pradesh.

Similarly, on March 27, 2008, SIMI general
secretary Safdar Nagori, absconding since September 27, 2001, was arrested
along with 12 other cadres of the outfit from Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Among the arrested was Safdar's brother Kamruddin
Nagori. Safdar Nagori has been named in a First
Information Report (FIR) under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities
Act, registered at the New Friends Colony Police station in South Delhi.
He is alleged to have established links with the operatives of Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, and other
Islamist fundamentalist leaders in a bid to revive SIMI cadres under
the umbrella of a different outfit.

Mohammad Aamir, the chief of SIMI's
Uttar Pradesh (UP) State unit and the prime accused in the Kanpur riots
of March 16, surrendered before a metropolitan magistrate on April 25,
2006.

Another top SIMI leader Abul
Bashar Qasmi, who had taken over the control of the outfit after Safdar
Nagori's arrest, was arrested on August 16, 2008 from a village in Azamgarh
in UP by a joint team of the UP and Gujarat Police. Qasmi allegedly
was the mastermind behind the July 26, 2008 Ahmedabad (Gujarat) serial
bomb blasts,

Linkages and Areas of
Operation

SIMI reportedly secures
generous financial assistance from the World Assembly of Muslim Youth
(WAMY), Riyadh, and also maintains close links with the International
Islamic Federation of Students' Organizations (IIFSO) in Kuwait. It
also receives generous funds from contacts in Pakistan.

The Chicago-based Consultative
Committee of Indian Muslims is also reported to have supported SIMI
morally and financially.

The SIMI has links with
the Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI) units in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. It
also has a close working relationship with the Islami Chhatra Shibir
(ICS), the students’ wing of the JeI in Bangladesh. The SIMI is also
alleged to have close links with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), and the
ISI.

Beginning the autumn of 2000, SIMI cadres
were known to have undergone training with the HM cadres in Jammu and
Kashmir (J&K). At least three Jalgaon (in Maharashtra) residents
— Sheikh Asif Supdu, Sheikh Khalid Iqbal and Sheikh Mohammad Hanif —
are believed to have died in shootouts with Indian troops near Kishtwar
in J&K.

Certain SIMI leaders are
reported to have close links with Pakistan-based terrorist groups such
as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed. SIMI activists, over
the years, have also become a vital part of the LeT's grand plans for
destabilisation in India.

SIMI also maintains ties
with the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B).

SIMI is also reportedly
involved in a continuous recruitment drive for the HuJI-B in Uttar Pradesh's
Jaunpur, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ambedkar Nagar, Aligarh, Azamgarh,
Sonauli, Ferozabad and Hathras areas. Further, SIMI cadres, sources
indicate, are involved in the safe transportation of explosives and
creation of channels for funds and securing safe houses for the HuJI-B
cadres.

Groups of SIMI sympathizers
reportedly exist in several places in the Gulf States. Jamayyatul Ansar,
an organisation of SIMI activists comprising expatriate Indian Muslims,
reportedly operates in Saudi Arabia.

Several Islamist fundamentalist
organisations in India are allegedly controlled by former SIMI cadres.
Prominent among them are the Kerala-based National Democratic Front
and Islamic Youth Centre (IYC), and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam
(TMMK) in Tamil Nadu.

According to official sources,
in the year 1993 following the arrest of a Sikh terrorist, it was revealed
that SIMI cadres, Sikh and Kashmiri terrorists, had been brought together
by the ISI through the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan to carry out subversive
activities.

The outfit is currently
regarded as having a national presence with strong bases in the States
of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra
(Aurangabad, Malegaon, Jalgaon and Thane), Andhra Pradesh and Assam.
It reportedly has a strong base in various universities in these States.
SIMI is also believed to enjoy the support of a large section of the
Muslim populace in cities such as Kanpur, Rampur, Moradabad, Saharanpur,
Lucknow and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Official sources are reported
to have identified nine districts in Uttar Pradesh, where the SIMI is
suspected of engaging in subversive activities-Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh,
Agra, Faizabad, Bahraich, Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri and Azamgarh. The
SIMI is also being utilised by various terrorist outfits because it
has a well-knit network in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

In Kerala, SIMI operates
under the cover of some 12 front organisations, at least two of which
are based in the capital, Thiruvananthapuram, and a third in the port
city of Kochi. Kondotty in the Malappuram District has also emerged
as a hot-bed of SIMI activities. An official declaration submitted on
June 1, 2006, by the Kerala Government before the tribunal examining
the legality of the ban on SIMI, indicated that the outfit's cadres
had ‘lately' developed links with the LeT. Reports from various agencies,
including the State Police Special Branch, further indicate that SIMI
is operating under the cover of religious study centres, rural development
and research centres. Some of these front organisations were spreading
"extremist religious ideals" among sections of youth in Kerala by acting
under the guise of "counselling and guidance centres working for behavioural
change". SIMI is also reported to have established a women's wing in
Kerala. Generous funds for such activities flow in from contacts in
Kuwait and Pakistan.

In the western State of
Maharashtra, areas such as Aurangabad, Malegaon, Jalgaon and Thane have
remained strongholds of the SIMI. Intelligence agencies indicate that
Madrassas (seminaries) in the Districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Thane,
Sholapur, Kolhapur, Gadchiroli, Nanded, Aurangabad, Malegaon and Pune
have been brought under the scanner for SIMI activities. There are more
than 3,000 Madrassas in the State, with about 200,000 students.
As many as 500 seminaries are located in the State capital, Mumbai.
Sources indicate that many of these seminaries are potential breeding
grounds for SIMI's activities.

SIMI's activities have
also continued in Assam and West Bengal, where the organisation has
infiltrated Madrassas, Muslim clubs, libraries, and other cultural bodies
for covert mobilisation of Islamist forces. In 2003, SIMI activists
have operated from the platform of ‘Islamic Siksha Shivirs' (Islamic
Educational Camps) in Mograhat in the North 24 Parganas district in
West Bengal. A two-day ‘workshop' organised in the District between
August 31 and September 1 had, in fact, finalised the outfit's infiltration
plans. Sources indicate that in August 2003, one Jamaluddin Chaudhory
of the ICS had taken seven SIMI activists from Assam and West Bengal
to residential Madrassas in Chittagong, Rangpur and Dhaka for ‘higher
Islamic studies'. Additionally, some hardcore SIMI activists from Malda
and South 24 Parganas had crossed over to Bangladesh for higher studies
in Islamic theology at a Saudi-funded private institution in Chittagong.
In the 2004 general elections, SIMI had backed the newly floated ‘Indian
National League (INL)', which put up candidates in six constituencies
of Jangipur, Murshidabad, Diamond Harbour, Basirhat, Jadavpur and Kolkata
North-West. Senior SIMI leader Hasan Saidullah Ashrafi contested the
Basirhat seat from the INL platform and finished seventh among eight
candidates polling just 4,780 valid votes.

In the State of Madhya
Pradesh, “While SIMI activities were confined to Indore, Ujjain, Khandwa
and Bhopal before the ban on it in 2001, they have spread to Burhanpur,
Guna, Neemuch and Shajapur as well now,” an unnamed police official
was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times on August 16, 2006. Before the
ban, 33 cases were registered against SIMI activists in various districts
for spreading religious discord. Since then, however, 49 cases have
been filed against the group. SIMI national general secretary Safdar
Nagori, an Ujjain resident in his 40s, has been absconding since the
ban. “He has cases against him of spreading religious discord since
1997-98,” Ajay Kumar Sharma, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, said.
Since the ban, 180 SIMI activists have been arrested from across the
State. And since April 2006, five SIMI members, including two women,
have been taken into custody in Khandwa, four in Burhanpur and one each
in Jabalpur and Ujjain.

Membership, Influence
and Activities

Opposed to democracy, secularism
and nationalism, SIMI has been advocating among its followers - some
400 ansars (full-time cadres) and the 20,000 ordinary members - the
need to oppose "man-made" institutions and work for the Ummah.

Students up to the age of 30 years are
eligible to be its members and after completing this age-limit they
retire from the organization.

SIMI cadres consider Osama bin Laden
as a ‘true believer of Islam’ and regard him as an epitome of ‘Islamic
Hero’. According to Safdar Nagori, a prominent SIMI leader, bin Laden
is "not a terrorist" and neither is Jammu and Kashmir an "integral part
of India." At its congregations, messages and recorded speeches have
been relayed from the Palestinian Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and
Qazi Hussein Ahmed, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan.

Official sources have indicated that
the SIMI has established links with terrorist outfits and is also supporting
extremism/militancy in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere. The
outfit is reported to have published objectionable posters and literature,
which are intended to incite communal feelings and which question the
territorial integrity of India.

Shaheen Force, the outfit’s wing for
schoolchildren, seeks to "protect the children from present-day misguidance
and vices" and keeps them "under the shade of Islamic culture". The
outfit also has a wing that aims to channelise the talent of girls for
the Islamist cause.

SIMI reportedly operates many special
programmes for students of Arabic colleges and Islamic universities.
Students receive training and other assistance in the study of languages
and Islamic sciences. According to the SIMI, renaissance of the Ummah
depends on Islamic scholars because the community can attain its glory
only when it will be led and guided by sincere Ulema (scholars).

According to the SIMI, Israelis were
responsible for the 9/11 attacks in New York. According to a press release
issued by its secretary-general Safdar Nagori after 9/11, "there are
strong reasons to believe that the recent attacks may be a conspiracy
of the Zionist Israel, which is rapidly losing world support because
of its inhuman and terrorist activities in Palestine."

Publications

SIMI publishes several magazines in
various languages, including Vivekam in Malayalam, Sedhi Madal
in Tamil, Rupantar in Bengali, Iqraa in Gujarati,
Tahreek in Hindi, Al Harkah in Urdu and the Shaheen
Times.